HALF of all Germans want to ditch the euro and bring back their deutschmark, according to a poll.

Despite a year of prop­aganda from their government informing them that the beleaguered European currency is good for them, 49 per cent of ­Germans still wish they had the mighty mark in their pockets.

This is one of the highest proportions of Germans wanting its return since polls in the 1990s showed close to 70 per cent of them wanted to retain the mark, the currency of their "economic miracle".

DAILY EXPRESS CRUSADE: GET US OUT OF EUROPE

The recent crises in Greece and Ireland have contributed to further disillusion.

In the survey for the daily Bild newspaper, only 41 per cent of people were satisfied with the euro. Most of the rest said they did not know what to think.

The survey found that the majority of Germans are ­worried about the stability of the currency and the ­possibility of inflation.

Three-quarters of the ­people questioned by YouGov said they personally had not profited from the adoption of the euro.

And if Germany was not part of the eurozone, only 30 per cent of those asked would today vote to adopt the euro and 60 per cent would vote against it.

Yet despite the concerns, the majority believe the euro is here to stay.

Asked whether the euro would still be country's ­currency in 20 years, 55 per cent of the respondents replied yes. Germany adopted the euro in 1999 along with 10 other countries.

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Since then Germany has become the underwriter of the troubled currency, propping up both Greece and Ireland in a bid to keep it, and the entire EU project, alive.

Now Germans are bracing themselves for Portugal to come calling with the begging bowl as well.

Deutsche Bank announced shortly before Christmas that it expected Lisbon would need a bail-out.

Germany spent billions on ditching the deutschmark and switching to the euro and on persuading the public it was a good thing.

But earlier this month Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that her country could pull out of the euro as nations wrangled over the future of the single currency.

Such is the negative feeling towards the European ­currency, the euro is now known in Germany as the teuro  a play on the word teuer, meaning expensive.

Germans still hoard an ­estimated £5.5 billion worth of marks in their homes, based on the old exchange that three marks were worth £1.

Most older Germans still calculate prices in their heads in marks.
That so many now favour the euro's farewell is sending shockwaves through the ­Merkel-led coalition, already trailing badly in opinion polls. The unpopularity of the euro in Germany also fuels widespread anxiety across Europe about the Brussels regime.

The growing uprising in Germany, Europe's largest economy, adds weight to the Daily Express crusade for Britain to pull out of the EU.

Tens of thousands of readers have backed our crusade over the past few weeks ­calling for the Government to take a stand against constant ­meddling from Eurocrats.